Dream Meltic Halloween
by Ten-Faced
Summary: All Luka wanted to do was to go to that Halloween event on October 31st with her best friend, Gumi... Silly of her to not remember just what always happens in the movies on that night. Minor Gakupo/Luka. For solitaryloner's stress relief contest. Happy Halloween.


Inspired by the song by the awesome Machigerita.

* * *

"Please, Luki?" Megurine Luka never begged. Never. Not to her best friend Gumi, not to her parents, and most certainly not to her older brother Luki. So what made this event special?

"No," scowled the pink-haired boy, or, as he liked to point out, _man_.

"Oh, come on!" Luka threw her hands in the air, exasperated. "All I'm asking is that you cover for me, and tell mom and dad that I'm at a friend's house! What's so hard about it?"

Luki put down the textbook he had been holding, and lowered his reading glasses, the very image of a patronizing older brother. "Luka," he began, a stern tone strengthening his voice and authority of three extra years onto his sixteen-year old sister. "Mother and father trusted me to take care of you. To make sure nothing happened to you while they were on that cruise. I can't break that trust they have in me, even if you really want to go to this festival. It's too dangerous for a girl like you. Sorry, kid, but maybe next year."

"You do realize that this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, right?" she demanded, angry at how 'mature' he thought he was acting. Mature, her foot. He was being a sexist pig.

He shrugged, the annoying aura of _I'm-experienced-in-this-and-you're-not_ around him. "That's too bad. You're still not going to this fair thing."

Luka took a deep breath, readying her lungs to yell at him, but thought better. Instead, she thought, why not use the opposite tactic? Men always expected their opponents to come running at them, outright challenging their authority and ready to fight for dominance. Why not pretend to be giving up, submitting, and instead defy his orders?

"But if I'm not going, then at least let me go over to Gumi's house," she made sure her voice had the exact right mix of defeat and a grasping-at-straws feel. She had to convince her brother that this was all she was doing; only getting a consolation prize. Nothing more. "We promised this sleep-over a _month_ ago, and you're not ruining _this_ plan."

Luki thought for a moment, and nodded slowly. "As long as you don't sneak out of the house and go to the party."

The pinkette smiled inside, although on the outside she acted irritated. "What is this, a movie? I'm not stupid like _you_, you know."

Luki raised an eyebrow, and she thought, for one dreaded moment, that he would say no, but thankfully didn't say anything.

**~Dream_Meltic_Halloween~**

"Wow," drawled Gumi, gnawing on a carrot as she watched Luka pant from the speech on how annoying older brothers (cough Luki cough) were and that they were the worst things in the entire world. She rolled onto her back, looking at Luka with her face upside down and green hair clashing hideously with Luka's pink bedspread. "Never thought party-boy _Luki_ would be the one to say no."

Luka could understand Gumi's surprise. When he had been in high school, Luki had been famous for partying. A party wouldn't be a party without the pink-haired party-animal, as everyone called him, and if he couldn't go, fun did not exist.

For some reason, graduating and going into college had changed her older brother, making him sterner, more serious and pretty much anti-fun. No one else except their family knew, and their parents were too happy and proud about the change.

Luka wasn't. She missed the old Luki, the one that took her out sometimes when she didn't have to cover his butt.

"But no worries," continued her best friend. "I can, like, _totally _sneak you in. Gumo and Gumiya are both gonna be, like, at home, and if your brother calls, just tell him that, like, we ran out of candy and went, like, trick-or-treating or something."

"Let me guess, you're going to be one of those obnoxious mall-rats?"

Gumi grinned eagerly, losing the heavy-lidded look she had and sitting up straight. "It's the total opposite of me! That's perfect for Halloween, right?"

Luka nodded. Apparently, on the flier Gumi had picked up while walking to work, costumes were necessary for admission. Other than that, everything was free.

"What should I wear?" Luka wasn't really asking her eccentric boy-crazy friend. Mostly, she was just talking to herself.

So it came as a surprise when Gumi answered. "How about that witch or priestess thing you had on in the drama production? You bought it with your own money, so you still have it, right?"

"My druidess outfit?" Luka was even more surprised by this. She hadn't known Gumi had seen her play last year.

"That's not even a _word, _Luka."

"Fine. _Druid priestess._ Happy?"

"Are you sure? Because to me, it looked more like a witch…."

"_Gumi._"

"Fine, fine, call it whatever you want."

Luka stood up, trying not to smile. Their 'playful' fights always had her in a relatively good mood, something everyone else found strange. "It should be somewhere in my closet."

"Then let us check!" Gumi rolled off, spun in mid-air and landed squarely on her feet. A perfect landing.

Opening the door, the two girls ignored the mass of pink, black and brown, digging to the back where the stranger articles of Luka's closet dwelled. A green wig, two baby shoes, one spider and two loud, blood-curdling screams later ("Eeek! Spider! Kill it!" – "Gross, no!"), they found the costume.

"Cinderella, you're going to the ball!" exclaimed Gumi.

**~Dream_Meltic_Halloween~**

"You have no sense of direction," complained Luka as she stumbled over another invisible rock on the beaten dirt road. Luckily, she was wearing comfortable sneakers under her long pink dress, something that prevented her feet from getting blisters. The same couldn't be said for Gumi, though. She was wearing dangerously tall heels, and looked like she'd fall down and break her ankle any second.

"It's dark here!" Gumi replied in a defensive tone. "Besides, I've never been here before!"

Luka rolled her eyes, and straightened her pink veil again. It seemed that every single time she tripped, her full-body length veil just _had _to shift to her side or front, instead of her _back,_ where the blasted thing was supposed to _be_. "I hear laughter over there," she told her friend. "Let's go."

Grumbling, Gumi followed as her friend took the lead. "The festival had better be worth it, _and_ have cute boys, too!" she paused, wobbling on her ridiculously high heels. "If there isn't, then, I'm, like, totally jumping off a cliff."

"Please don't get into character, its bad enough we're lost here. And it was your idea."

"You're lost?" out of the darkness in the bushes at the side of the road, a smooth voice rang out.

"Eeek!" Somehow, Gumi managed to not break anything as she leapt to Luka's side in those stilettos of hers. "It's a murderer! Or rapist! Help!"

"Gumi, shut up," snapped Luka, but she, too, eyed the general direction where the tenor voice had come from, her left hand clutching her hidden bottle of pepper spray. "Who's there?" she demanded, her voice unwavering despite her fear.

A man – no, he only looked one or two years older than them - walked out into the dim light, seemingly materializing from the shadows with his hands up in a surrendering gesture. Luka's fingers lost their grip on her spray bottle, and for good reason.

He was gorgeous. His hair was long, silky and purple, and two strands of it hung down the sides of his face, framing the pale skin. One of his eyes was hidden by his bangs, but the visible one was ice-blue, slightly hidden by half-closed lids. All in all, he looked like one of the stereotypical vampires in the manga they both liked to read, but much better looking.

_He can't be that older than you…_ An inner voice that sounded suspiciously like Gumi chimed in.

"I don't mean harm," he spoke, his voice somehow reminding Luka of melted chocolate and honey in its richness, or whatever was really rich and tasted like he sounded. "But I couldn't help overhear how you were lost. Tell me, are you going to the Dream Meltic Halloween Festival?"

In her fear and surprise, Luka had forgotten what Gumi was like around relatively cute boys. And this guy exceeded 'relatively cute' by a mile. "Umm, yeah. Do you know where it is?" Gumi asked, straightening her clothes and hair with extreme speed as she actually batted – _batted!_ her eyelids. Oh, she'd be having fun teasing her about this later.

The man eyed her with amusement, and Luka got the feeling that he knew exactly what she had been thinking. A little pink coloured her cheeks, and she turned away.

"As a matter of fact, I do," he paused, and for the first time, Luka managed to tear her eyes away from his face and noticed what he had on. Of course anyone within a mile radius around here tonight would have a costume for the festival.

His costume, unlike hers or Gumi's, was hard to tell what it was. A large yellow and green _haori_ was carelessly slung on his shoulders with spider-web patterns decorating the lower green part. He didn't, much to Luka's chagrin, have a shirt on, but instead had bandages wrapping his lower abdomen, showing off his muscled chest where an upside-down cross rested, hanging on a black cord around his neck. A pair of black pants further showed off his slim dancer's body, with more bandages wrapped up his ankles to match. Luka wasn't sure what he was supposed to be, but he was, in Gumi's Hot Guy Scale, a solid hundred out of ten.

_Gumi must have been ecstatic_, she thought. _Well, she's not the only one…._

"May I have the honour of escorting you two ladies to the fair?" he offered, all manners, acting unlike other eighteen-year-and-older guys she knew.

Gumi nodded eagerly, with Luka following after a fraction of hesitation. For some reason, she trusted this man, even if it seemed a really bad idea to follow a stranger in the woods.

Besides, she had pepper spray. Even the hottest people couldn't be above pepper spray.

**~Dream_Meltic_Halloween~**

"Whoa!" Gumi exclaimed as she looked around the supposedly abandoned farm. Luka knew how she felt. Honestly, she herself had been expecting something like a barn, with a few jack-o-lanterns and music, the classic high school dance, with fifty or more people.

This… this was like an entire amusement park. At least a hundred people had to be here, in the surprisingly large barn that was in remarkably good shape. The walls had actually been painted with a dark purple to look like a town at night, with bats and trees painted in black silhouettes. Pumpkins carved with remarkable detail were scattered by the dozens around, lights glowing out of them. Black curtains hung around, tables were laden with sweets that gave off a tantalizing aroma, and that was just the beginning.

"Oh! Look, look!" Gumi squealed, nudging Luka towards the people she recognized. Witches, animals, robots…

No one was who they actually were here, their true identities hidden behind bright cosmetics, wigs, masks and clothes. All a liberating farce. Subconsciously, she straightened her veil.

"Excuse me, excuse me!" a voice cried, and everyone turned to face the very back of the barn, where a pretty girl in blinding white clothes stood with a megaphone in hand.

Curious, Luka stepped forward. Who was the girl in the black silk hat? Her clothes didn't even look like a costume, and it was hard to imagine what she could be dressing up as.

That was Luka's thoughts before she noticed the pair of black bat wings. Next to the painted walls, they had been invisible until the teal-haired girl had shifted to the side.

"Is everyone listening?" she paused as a good-natured cheer rose. "That's not what I call listening at all!" she put her hands on her hip, glaring with mock rage at the crowd, making them laugh.

"Well, my name is Hatsune Miku, and I'm one of the organizers of this event!" she struck a funny pose, pumping her fist in the air, and Luka noticed her black tail. Maybe she was a demon or something. "Yes, you may clap for the amazing lady here!"

Laughing, the audience cheered and clapped loudly. "Good to know you're enthusiastic! Now, eat as much as you want, and enjoy the various games and booths we have here! That is all!" Miku, as she called herself, took a bow and skipped off the stage, her twin pigtails flying enthusiastically.

"Luka!" the pinkette turned to find her green-haired friend at her side. "Can we go to the shadow show? Please?"

Wasn't the shadow show about some kind of murder? Something horror based, anyways. She was such a scaredy-cat, but the intoxication of the night and the party… well, nothing could be scary now, could it? Not when she was starting to have a good time? And surely it would be fun?

"Sure!" she cried, and began to run as fast as she could in her long dress. "Last one there is a rotten egg!"

"It's the other direction, dummy!"

Laughing the small jibe off with good humour, she changed courses and raced her friend through the people, running to the place where the small theatre was set up.

She didn't notice the pair of ice-blue eyes on her and Gumi.

**~Dream_Meltic_Halloween~**

"That show was creepy," complained Gumi, sitting down to rub her feet. "A babysitter in a house getting creeped out by a clown statue, only to find that it was a serial killer and ending up getting slaughtered with the kids? Eck."

"But it was still fun," Luka sighed, and sat down on the hay bale next to her friend, careful to not squash her skirt or head veil. "You were laughing at some parts. You looked like you were about to _die_ laughing at one part."

"Well, yeah, I couldn't _breathe_ properly."

"So…" Luka was ready to have fun. "What's next?"

Blue eyes met green. "Food!" they exclaimed at the same time, and giggled, the fun-filled atmosphere and feast drugging them with the alluring scent.

"I bet I can eat more than you," challenged Gumi.

"You are a pig," retorted Luka, getting up and stretching. Odd. She should be feeling tired by now. And yet, she was wide-awake, as if she had had a refreshing night of sleep and a good, healthy breakfast.

"Am not!" Gumi stood up, barefoot in the dirt. The stilettos lay next to the hay bale, the annoying torture devices deserted. "And for that insult I challenge you to an eating competition!"

"Let's just eat," suggested Luka, already beginning to walk towards the tables at the side, still overflowing with sugary, fattening foods. Perfect.

"Coward," began Gumi, and would have said more, but donuts caught her eyes. "Ooh!" the green-haired mall rat snatched up the poor pastry and scarfed it down. "_Yum."_

Smiling at Gumi's childish actions, Luka also picked up a small cupcake decorated with a smiling pumpkin and bit into it, letting the chocolaty taste overflow her mouth. _Mmm._

"Hello!" From behind the table, two people dressed in black cat costumes sprang up, surprising Luka and making her choke on the cupcake. While she coughed and tried to get air flowing to her lungs, Gumi shrieked and threw a lollipop at the cat on the left.

"Ow!" he complained, and rubbed his head. "Watch it! Those are for eating, not assaulting innocent cats!"

His companion giggled, and turned to face the two girls. "Hello!" she chirped. "Please, enjoy the festival, and eat as much as you want!"

"Happy Halloween!" they scampered away.

"They're very… enthusiastic?"

"Sure, let's go with that."

**~Dream_Meltic_Halloween~**

Dancing may have been some boring waltz a few centuries ago, and just jerking movements and jumps nowadays, but this…

Luka wasn't sure what it was. Swinging their partners to the sound of modern music, and mixing things from the past with the modern present way, it was odd… and yet enjoyable.

She liked it.

Gumi, of course, was having the time of her life. The male cat had changed into a sleek tuxedo, changing his rating on the Hotness Scale to a solid hundred, and had asked the green-haired girl to dance. Naturally, Gumi had agreed. Luka would have been jealous, but a hot guy had also asked _her_ to dance, and she'd been a little distracted by that.

Her own partner was a blue-haired man who was one of the organizers of the event. He was really tall and pale, but his face was one of a Greek Gods, or wherever they had hot gods. He claimed, gesturing at his somewhat-Victorian style clothes, cloak, and pointy hat, that he was a warlock. "But my girlfriend seems to think that I'm a male witch," he sighed. "Ironic, considering the fact that no one can tell that she's a vampire."

"Those things exist?" she wondered. "The male witches, I mean, not the warlocks or vampires."

"I have no clue."

He was a pretty good stranger partner to dance with, cracking jokes that were so lame they were funny, good-looking, nice, and he was a good dancer. She thought it was a shame that he had a girlfriend. "All the good ones…"

"Hmm?"

"Nothing, nothing."

The song ended, and Kaito – the warlock – bowed to her before disappearing into the crowd. Gumi bounded to her, face flushed and eyes sparkling in excitement. "He gave me his number!" she squealed.

"Who?"

"Len!" when that drew a blank gaze from Luka, she waved her hand impatiently. "The super hot guy that was formerly a cute cat? The blonde I was dancing with? His name is Len. Even his name! It's so hot!"

"Just don't lose the number."

"I memorized it!" and to prove it, Gumi recited it three times, and then once more, backwards, not making a single mistake.

"Why can't you have a memory like that in History Class?"

"Because our teacher isn't good-looking at all."

"…true."

**~Dream_Meltic_Halloween~**

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"You are such a nerd."

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"I am a sniper. _Not_ a nerd."

HIGH SCORE! The screen flashed those words in neon letters before giving out the mass of tickets Gumi had won in the zombie shooting game.

"Yeah, not a nerd at all," Luka shook her head. "Gumi, you just made the high score on that zombie-shooting game, and you beat the last high score by double the amount."

"Not my fault people can't shoot. Ooh! Hi, Len!"

The blond boy was back in the cat costume again, and was manning the prize station. He looked up and smiled. "Hello, Gumi."

Gumi fluttered. Luka jabbed her in the ribs as sharply as she could, because maybe she was just a bit jealous of her friend. "Choose your prize."

"Ow! Oh, right. Umm, I want… I want that one!"

"A banana?!" Luka said in disbelief.

"What's wrong with me wanting a banana?" Gumi asked while Len got the prize from the top shelf.

"Nothing, but… it's a _banana_, for Pete's sake."

Len raised an eyebrow. "There's nothing wrong with bananas. I like bananas. It's a nice choice," he added as he handed her the large banana plushie. Gumi hugged it, smiling, and Luka guessed that her friend had known this guy's love of the fruit. Sneaky.

"Isn't it cute?" her green-haired friend shoved the thing into her face. Luka made the mistake of inhaling, and was assaulted with the fake chemical imitation smell of the dry fruit.

Hell, no. "Sure, I guess," she tried to sound authentic.

Gumi made a face and shifted it to one side. Clearly, she hadn't fallen for that. "No fun at all, I swear."

"Not liking bananas-," Luka pushed at Gumi playfully, and then froze. "Oh, crap."

"What's wrong?" Gumi followed Luka's gaze, and landed on a pink-haired man searching for something. A very familiar pink haired man without a costume, but with a pissed  
off look on his handsome face that was rather similar to Luka's. "Oh, _shit_."

Luki. Her brother, who had specifically forbidden her from coming here, who wasn't supposed to know that she had come anyways. "What's _he_ doing here?" she hissed, dragging Gumi behind the stalls.

Gumi peeked out, winked and giggled at Len, and then pulled her head back out of sight. "Gumo or Gumiya must have blown our cover."

"_Great_!" Luka gestured at herself. "He'll recognize this costume, and then know I ignored his orders! _(Gumi: Technically, he already knows you disobeyed him)_ What do I do?"

She realized her mistake when she saw Gumi's eyes, madness glinting within them as she came up with what would most likely be a ridiculous plan. "Give me your veil."

"Wha? Hey!"

Gumi snatched the pink, flowing full-length veil off and wrapped it around herself, hiding her bright hair and shading part of her face. "I'll ask Len for help. Stay hidden."

Alright, so maybe it wasn't too much of a ridiculous plan, for once. Nothing like hiring an airplane, shooting zombies, or cross-dressing. It was actually somewhat realistic this time. "Don't get caught."

Determined, Gumi marched out of their hiding spot while Luka tried to sink into the shadows, all too aware that without the veil, her hair and her face was much more visible than before, and even with the veil covering it, her face had been easily distinguished. From behind the bend in the stall, she couldn't see her brother, Gumi, or the blonde Gumi liked. In other words, she was pretty much trapped. If Luki walked past this place, he'd see her.

Someone poked their head into the narrow place she had chosen as her hiding place, nearly giving Luka a heart attack. Facing the light, she couldn't see the person's face, but judging from the hair, he or she wasn't Luki or Gumi. "Hello?"

The figure tipped his or her head to the side. "Are you hiding?" a deep voice asked her. Luka blinked, and remembered the stranger who had helped her and Gumi when they had, being the failures they were, gotten lost.

"Yeah. Do you see a pink-haired guy out there?" she asked, still leaning against the wall, trying to press herself into it and disappear.

"Would you happen to mean me?" Luki stomped into view, one hand holding onto Gumi, who was wincing. "Care to explain what's going on, Luka?"

"Luki, it's not what it seems," she began, already knowing that it actually was what it looked like.

"You snuck out, even when I told you that you weren't to come here?" he sounded incredulous.

The purple-haired stranger looked at her brother, boredom in his pale blue eyes, and Luka flushed. Did he have to be here while she was being scolded like a little kid? "Well, yeah," she admitted. "Maybe it _is_ what it looks like."

Luki pursed his lips. "We're going home," he snapped. Luka groaned internally. Great. There would be quite an earful, he'd tell their parents, and she wouldn't be allowed out of the house till she was seventy, or dedicated to a life of being a nun. Possibly both.

Her brother finally let Gumi go, and instead reached for her. Luka sighed, and began to walk towards him when someone coughed, clearing their throat. The purple haired man. But his eyes were sharp, alert, and not very happy. "If I may?" he began.

"What?" Luki snapped, clearly not in the best of moods at the moment, and in his mind, that meant that it was justified for him to be rude to strangers. Luka was rather mortified, until she remembered that he had found her in a dark corner with him. Overprotective brother mode. That scene had probably earned her an extra hour in his lecture. "And who are you, anyways?"

"I'm one of the people in charge of the festival. I'm terribly sorry, but no one may leave until the festival is over," he said, clearly apologetic. "Unless it's a major emergency."

"This _is_ a major emergency."

His lips twitched into the thinnest smile possible. "How about you have a word with our director? She'd be more than happy to assure you that this festival is perfectly safe for your little sister."

"Look, bud," Luki began, his short patience used up for that night, when he froze.

"Luki?" Luka asked when the storm didn't get unleashed on some innocent passerby. Behind the purple-haired man and her brother, she caught a glimpse of black cloth ruffling in movement, blue hair glinting for a brief moment, and a pale face smirking. It seemed important to her, somehow, that little thing.

"You know what," Luki said, voice suddenly loosened and dream-like. Luka blinked in surprise. Was her brother bipolar now? "I think I _will_ talk to your director. This looks like such a fun place. I can't imagine why I didn't let my little sister come here when it seems perfectly safe."

It sounded like he was reading that off a teleprompter. His voice was rather monotone, and he didn't have much emotion in it. Luka stepped towards him, unsure of what had happened. "Luki?"

"Enjoy the festival, Luka," her brother said dreamily, and began to stagger off. "Where are you going?" she shouted at his back. He didn't look back, only kept on stumbling drunkenly off to his destination.

"He'll be fine," the stranger assured her. "He's just going to go and talk with Meiko, and then he'll have fun."

"How do you know?"

The purple-haired man blinked, the visible ice-blue eye careful and giving nothing away. "Wasn't that what he just said?"

"Oh," she felt stupid. Well, of course! That was what Luki had said! How else would have the man known about what he was going to do?

Gumi tapped her shoulder, and handed her the veil back. "He recognized the veil," her friend said sheepishly. "I guess I should have thought some more, huh?"

Luka shrugged, and tried to put the veil back around her hair. "Is it on straight?"

"No," Gumi reached over. "Here, let me help."

For the next minute or so, they spent it trying to straighten her hair veil. "Gumi, you ruined it."

"Did not!" she protested, playing with a few bobby pins as she tried to secure the slippery material onto her head. It refused to cooperate, and she growled in frustration. Gumi yanked something off, and Luka yelped in pain as a few strands of hair were pulled out of her scalp forcibly. "Sorry."

Some other hands came and took over, coaxing the thin gossamer-like cloth onto the proper position and making it behave. Luka looked up to see the purple-haired man, who had apparently fixed her hair. "Thank you."

He shrugged and left the small area. Gumi sighed, eyeing his retreating back. "I know I may have a chance with Len… but he's hot."

"I agree," Luka sighed, looking at the same person. Then, she blinked, realizing what she had just admitted to. "But don't you dare say anything."

"No Tweeting?"

"No."

"Shoot."

**~Dream_Meltic_Halloween~**

After that incident, Luka admitted to herself that she felt much more at ease about her sneaking out. She had, subconsciously, been worrying about what her brother would have thought if he had ever found out, and although his sudden odd behaviour was rather… _odd_, he didn't look or act like he would tell their parents about her disobeying his 'orders'.

Her heart comforted, Luka shuffled around, looking for the missing things on the list. The first three winners of the scavenger hunt had been promised either a laptop, a brand-new, latest in line cell phone, or a two hundred dollar gift card. Quite heavy prizes, and one their hosts promised to be easy pickings.

For the first time, Luka found herself wondering just how these people were paying for everything. As far as her searching eyes could tell, there weren't any advertisements put up, which crossed out corporate sponsors, and none of them were paying for the entrée, the food, the games or the prizes, all of which had to be quite heavy on the metaphorical wallet.

Maybe it was some rich person funding this for a personal reason. Hell if she knew.

She stopped thinking about it when she found a small pumpkin carved to resemble an orange head with a hideous face. That had been one of the items on the list; a real pumpkin. She could have just picked one up like the other people were doing, but Luka had no intention of lugging around a giant pumpkin. She picked it up by the stem carelessly, not seeing any candles in there to be a fire hazard.

One step towards getting a new gadget, be it won or bought with money won. Luka wasn't the luckiest person exactly, but she was good at finding things, so she found herself hoping to have a chance to win this thing.

She brought out the list. There were only five more items left on the list, but there was also only fifteen minutes left. A bat plushie, something from the foods table, a pencil, a necklace or a pendant, and one of the organizers for the event, excluding the one waiting to check the list and determine the winners.

Luka grabbed a piece of candy from her pockets, something she had slipped in there without really thinking about before. That was two, and, looking around with a hint of guilt, she snatched off one of the bats hung up for decoration. It was a little doll, so she thought that should count.

But a pencil, a piece of jewelry, and one of the organizers? She'd have been lucky if this place had a piece of broken lead, and she wasn't wearing any jewelry. Luka had never liked trinkets, much. It had been tedious for her to be lugging around some kind of metal or rope or anything like that, having to care about something inanimate and cold so close to her body.

As for the organizers of the event… they had all mysteriously disappeared, except for Len, who was sitting at a table, waiting for the winners to come and get their prizes. Gumi had refused to participate, choosing instead to hang around her potential future boyfriend. Luka just wanted one of the prizes, and now that she was somewhat close to the reward, she found herself unwilling to give up, to accept losing gracefully. She had to win.

A flash of purple, somewhere in the darker sections past the reaches of the light illuminating the festival, caught her eyes. She ignored it, still thinking. Where would a pencil be put in a festival like _this_? And were there any games she could try to win the necklace at? No, they were all closed, because nobody was manning them. Gumi hadn't been wearing one, as far as she knew, and she couldn't ask anyone else for one.

"So you're on the scavenger hunt, too?"

Luka knew what to expect by now. "Oh, hi, you," she said, turning around. "And yes, I am. God, it looks like such an easy hunt, but there probably isn't anything else on this list."

"What do you have to get?"

"A pencil, a necklace, and an organizer for the event. Know where I can get them?"

"At Wal-Mart, I bet."

Luka shot him a look. Hot or not, he was still making fun of her. Great, a smartass. She opened her mouth, and then his necklace caught her eyes. "Can I borrow that?" she asked instead.

He was nice enough to give it to her. "I would like that back later, when this is all over with."

"Promise," Luka nodded, taking the polished piece of wood. "But first, I need to go to Wal-Mart to pick up a pencil."

She had actually been sarcastic, but he seemed to take it seriously. Hadn't _he_ been the one joking about it? "On the way, you could lose that."

"I won't!"

"How do I know that?"

"A little trust here?"

"Well, you _did_ sneak out to come here, from what your brother said."

"Gaah…"

"And either way," he said, clearly enjoying this. Sadist. "You're not allowed to leave until the entire thing is over, so no Wal-Mart trips."

"I know," she grumbled, toying with the necklace. "You told me-" Luka blinked. "You told me!"

"I told you," he agreed.

"Do you have a pencil?"

He grinned at her. "Now that's how you ask someone," from somewhere, he pulled out an orange pencil, practically brand-new and straight out of the box. "This one, you can keep. I have more of them."

"Thanks," she thought for a moment, and decided to just poke it in her pocket, making sure that the sharp end was sticking out of her pocket. Best not to ruin a perfectly good costume. "And do you mind if I borrow you as well?"

"Beg pardon?" his face was blank.

"I know you're one of the organizers for this event," she lowered her voice. "You said it yourself."

"Why are we whispering?" he seemed determined to make it hard for her. How much time did she have left? Luka didn't want to cut it close.

"Please?" she pleaded. "I really want to win."

He looked at her, clearly amused. "My name is Gakupo."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Luka. _Please_?"

"Please what?"

"Please let me borrow you so I can win the scavenger hunt."

"That sounds quite odd," he shook out his hair from his eyes. "But sure."

She squealed, and before she could get a grip on her happy inner fangirl, threw her arms around him in a hug.

It was totally worth it.

**~Dream_Meltic_Halloween~**

Len looked up when they were near, and his blue eyes filled with playful annoyance. "Gakupo, you dense stupid idiot!" he exclaimed, standing up. "The point was to _hide_ and not get caught!"

Gakupo shrugged. "All's fair in fairs and fun."

"Isn't it Love and War?" Luka asked, emptying her pocket and placing them on the table. She wondered if she'd have to place Gakupo on there as well, but decided against it. She didn't have the strength to lift him.

"Says who? Nothing's fair."

"But you just said…"

"Don't believe him," Len advised, shifting through all the things Luka had handed him over his table. Gumi shot her a rather resentful look, most likely for interrupting her alone time. "He's a troll."

"I," Gakupo sighed, pushing back a bit of his hair. "Am a necromancer, a fact you know all too well, little kitty."

"Oh, shut up, corpse breath."

Luka and Gumi exchanged a look. _Men_.

"Anyways, that seems to be everything!" Len smiled at her. "Congratulations, you're the first winner!"

"Really?"

"Yup. You'll be the first one to pick the prize in…" Len checked a pocket watch hidden in the furs of his costume. "Five minutes."

Gumi glared at her again, and Luka sighed, knowing the reason why. "Oh."

"Yeah, you finished a little early. I'm surprised at how fast you got the stuff, but," he shrugged. "Not my concern. Want some red velvet cupcakes?" he offered her a plate of them.

Why not. "Sure."

**~Dream_Meltic_Halloween~**

After five minutes, the buzzer suspended over them, 'held' by a scarecrow, screamed out the only sound it could make, letting all know that the hunt was over.

Luka was the only winner. Len raised an eyebrow, but got out of his seat anyways. "Only one winner? Huh."

"We hadn't had a winner in some time, Len," Gakupo reminded him. "And besides, the time when we had more than one winner was when you and Rin won."

"Good times," Len smiled. "Anyways, Miku should be here soon."

Like magic, the girl in white clothes and black demon part things skipped up the stage, cheerfully smiling. "Do we have a winner?"

Gakupo raised a hand. "Here!"

Miku's eyes flitted over to her, landing on her. Luka gazed back as the demon-girl, or whatever she was, smiled and gestured at her. "Congrats! Come up to the stage! Don't be shy now!"

The crowd parted for her like the sea before Moses, and she walked up to the platform. There, she could see that she was just a bit taller than Miku was. The teal-haired girl pumped her hand enthusiastically. "So you're this year's winner!" she chirped. "Meiko, the prizes offered!"

A curtain hiding the back section of the stage rose, revealing a woman in a red dress and some kind of a hat with horns on it. The image she seemed to be going for was probably sexy rather than scary, but it was still a good costume. In front of her was a table, the promised things laid out on top of the surface.

"Which prize would you like? Don't be shy, just go right up and take one!"

Smiling, just a bit at the luck she'd been presented with, Luka took a step towards the back.

"Lulilu, Lilala," Miku whispered behind her, and the woman, Meiko, did the same. That whisper came from all around, said by people scattered around them.

Nothing happened. Luka shook it off and picked up her prize, the laptop. Meiko smiled and whispered her congratulations.

"Thank you."

"Luka!"

She spun around, surprised at Gumi's alarmed and scared shout, and a scream froze in her throat, her eyes feeling like they'd pop out as she tried to take in and make sense of this scene. Some sort of creatures, drooling and disgusting, and come out of nowhere, and were swarming everyone down below the stage, biting and tearing into them with extreme speed. Blood and pieces of shredded skin were flying everywhere, and the people down there didn't have her temporary muteness. They were screaming, terrified of this thing. Whatever it was, it wasn't fun or something they'd been expecting.

"Luka!"

"Gumi!" Luka tried to run, but a hand like iron gripped her forearm, stopping her from running to certain death by her friend. Stopped, she watched everything like they were a bad dream of hers, trying to do something – but what? What could she do to stop that slobbering, wide-jawed, pale skinned slimy thing that was partly human-like in the way it crawled and the shape of its head turning to bite something, anything moving with razor-sharp teeth? "Let me go!"

"Can't," Gakupo's voice whispered, reaching her ears clearly despite the sounds of the bloodbath and screams dying out. Luka couldn't close her eyes as Gumi – her best friend – let out a last cry before one of them ate her arm. With the other arm, the green-haired girl reached towards blond and gorgeous Len for help or for something, but he only laughed at her, cruel beauty in his eyes as he turned away contemptuously.

A creature bit her friend's head off, and that was the end of Gumi.

Didn't she care? That was her best friend of five years suddenly killed and here she was, not even a seed or mourning or sorrow in her heart. The word for what she felt would have been, more accurately, shock, but not the shell-shock kind of shock, the shock like the one you felt as you watched a movie, and the protagonist pulled something completely unexpected. The kind that easily faded away.

Within moments, all that was left was a large pile of blood, and a few scraps of flesh. The demon things, or whatever those had been, they all faded away, disappearing like wisps of mist killed by sunshine.

"I'd like my necklace back, if you don't mind," Gakupo asked, letting her go. Numbly, she reached into her pocket and pulled the upside-down cross out. She had held onto it, for some childish reason or another. Now it all seemed so stupid and useless.

"My thanks," he slipped it around his neck. "And congratulations on winning."

Probably, somewhere in the shattered bone pieces and the mixed blood and little pieces of flesh and guts, there was a bit of her brother and probably a bit of Gumi. They had died, had been killed.

Why didn't she care?

As the other organizers – Meiko, Kaito, Len and his twin, Miku – all got closer, Gakupo pushed a strand of his hair back. Perhaps it was a habit of his? "And welcome to the crew. You're one of us now."

Somewhere, deep inside the woods, an owl hooted.

* * *

Longest one-shot yet... for solitaryloner's contest! Happy Halloween!

Maybe one day, I'll write more on the universe of this fic... but till then, just read my other stories. Or review to tell me I should.


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